Sarah Appleton - Textile Artist Blog

Wow, my work was featured on a website! OK so it wasn't so much featured on there as linked from there... but I am still chuffed to bits! Thanks George Harrison news daily ! And now I also know where to get my daily news about George Harrison, double wow because I love that man!

Yesterday I was so excited about getting my  Society6  shop up and running that I completely forgot to post about another thing I meant to write about. Last Friday we had a drawing class with  Dan Heath  for developing themes n stuff; which made a nice change as it's usually an all female year group with all female teachers [not that I have a problem with women of course, being one myself, but it's nice to hear a man's perspective every now and then]. I struggle with drawing days because I can be disheartened when what's on the paper isn't the same as what's in my brain, but by the end of this day I had produced something I really liked: Donald Trompe-l'œil It's a 3D heart made from photocopies of my work, stuffed inside, sewn around the edge and with stringys coming all out of it. It looks very  Trompe-l'œil; a word I can spell but not pronounce, so don't ask me; and the scan sort of makes it looks like  Trompe-l'œil within  Trompe-l...

Hola! I've been in university for over a month now (studying for a Textiles BA with hhhons) and thought I'd share some of my favourite things that I've made there so far. My project is about the film Metropolis ; mostly we've only been screenprinting so that's why it's mostly screenprints. This was a piece of fabric that I'd spilled Procien dye on; ever the thrifty gal I didn't want to waste the piece so I hand splodged black dye all over it and then printed the red hearts using my exposed screen. It turned out rather punk rock and is one of my favourite things I've probably ever made! I printed the same hearts in a slightly varied pattern on a thin piece of muslin which makes them look very ye olde fashioned illustratey. Which I also like! I also cut this rather marvellous A3(ish) sized stencil - regular readers will know about my passion for the art of stencilling  - for some stencil prints. Most people peeping over my shoulder while I wa...

It was my wonderous penpal Sally 's birthday on 5th August so amongst other gifties that I sent her I made her a couple of Toilet Boys themed things (as she likes them and I still have a lot of this fabric left): Open Sesame Closed Sesame  As I have mentioned before, her favourite colours are neon pink and green, so I made her a cover for her tablet computer - I guessed the size, but she tells me it fits perfectly so that was lucky - and used bright green lining with a bright pink button for fastening. I used interfacing to make it all sturdier. I've never made a clutch bag / computer cover before so I was happy with this one! Oven Glove of Love II  I also made her an oven glove of love as the thickness of denim lends itself very well to the needs of an oven glove! Also like me, she likes cooking and eating. A lot. You can't see from the picture but I lined the glove with tiger print fabric, rawr and of course I included a layer of heat-proof wadding so she d...

I was recently blessed not only with the gift of a wonderful friend named Laura, but also with the gift of a wonderful friend named Laura who gives wonderful gifts of BIG BAGS OF VINTAGE FABRIC Big Bags Maudella 5443 And as I had previously been blessed with my friend Helen over at  Nellys Treasures  who recently gave me Maudella vintage pattern 5443 I decided to put these two elements together and came up with this: Faux Vintage But Also Really Vintage The brown squiggly one on the left I made for myself and the bluey greeny forresty one I made for Laura as a bon voyage present as soon she will be moving to Qatar to be a teacher. Nooooo! As for what else I've been up to; I've re-stocked my Etsy shop , am getting mentally prepared for uni (kinda) and today I attended my end of year exhibition for my Level 2 City & Guilds art course: Yup, that's me That's my work that I'm pointing the pointy at and also the lacy one above it. Yup! And her...

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned my pal Gemma's brownie business and something about bunting. Well Gemma asked me to make her some special bunting for her market stall and here it is: It's 2 sided, and all made from scraps of heritage type fabrics; gingham, checks, plaid / tartan, French toile, houndstooth, tweed, etc., which I had been wanting to do for a while. For an extra special fancy finish I used a velvety ribbon binding, tres classy! Unfortunately I didn't realise until I delivered the bunting that Gemma has a slight mental allergy to velvet ... oops! Nonetheless she is pleased as Punch and happy as Judy. You can catch Dark Matters at Boscombe Market on Saturdays starting this weekend (25th May)! Follow @EatDarkMatters (and follow me @AppletiniTiny)